UK’s Cameron seeks to quell party feud over welfare, EU

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http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2016/03/21/cameron-seeks-quell-party-feud-over-welfare/hx6pyKAjU9yHq6fZFCMEZK/story.html



In a video grab taken from a broadcast by the UK Parliament's Parliamentary Recording Unit, British Prime Minister David Cameron (right) listened as Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb addressed members of Parliament in the House of Commons Monday.

UK’s Cameron seeks to quell party feud over welfare, EU
Associated Press March 21, 2016

LONDON — British Prime Minister David Cameron sought Monday to unite a warring Conservative Party behind his ‘‘modern, compassionate’’ government, after a senior minister resigned and accused the Treasury of targeting society’s poorest people with welfare cuts.

The shock departure of Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith — who said he could not stomach plans to slash payments to disabled people — blew the top off simmering Conservative divisions over government priorities, and the European Union.

Duncan Smith is among a group of senior Conservatives who want Britain to leave the EU, and his resignation heaped pressure on Cameron and Treasury chief George Osborne, both of whom want the United Kingdom to stay in. British voters will decide in a June 23 referendum whether to remain in the 28-nation bloc.

Duncan Smith, who has pushed through a series of unpopular changes to the country’s welfare system over the past six years, dramatically quit late Friday, accusing the government of targeting the poor for cuts while protecting pensions for the better-off. He said last week’s budget, which included a $5.8 billion cut to disability benefits, was the last straw.